Inspector Tom Barnaby, actually DCI Barnaby (Detective Chief Inspector) is a British investigator, living with his wife in the rural county of Midsomer, the main character of the novels by Caroline Graham.

His wife, Joyce, is patient in regards to her husband’s occupation and the associated uncertainties. She concerns herself with estimating the household budgets and attending voluntary, charitable and cultural functions across the county.

Their daughter, Cully, is going after her dream of becoming an actress, but she has not yet succeeded in making a name for herself. She therefore often visits her parents - to save costs and receive their encouragements.

Inspector Barnaby carries out his investigations into various cases together with his assistant, Detective Sergeant Gavin Troy. He has changed assistants in the course of the series, which is why DS Troy became DS Dan Scott and then DS Ben Jones.

DCI Barnaby’s cases play in the rural and idyllic, nonetheless fictional, Midsomer. The writer, Caroline Graham, portrays the residents of Midsomer as lovable, sometimes eccentric, taking care of their house and garden and doing their work.

This rural world reminds us in its old-fashioned presentation a bit of Agatha Christie, the Queen of Crime. Miss Marple would definitely enjoy her time in the county of Midsomer - its inhabitants would very much remind her of those in her town of St. Mary Mead.

Although the residents of Midsomer seem endearing, murder, manslaughter and extortion are part of everyday life for Inspector Barnaby and his assistant. It turns out that the residents of the county have a certain creativity of their own when it comes to their fellow human beings being transported from this world to the afterlife.

A candlestick or a pitchfork seem to be almost too boring a murder instruments. At least when you compare these tools with slide projectors, ploughs or liquid nicotine. In any case, however, one needs a great deal of imagination and creativity to come up with the idea to kill someone with a doped horse or a bar drink.

Inspector Barbaby’s cases show quite remarkably how, like in the novels of Agatha Christie, human abysses are hardly visible at first glance behind a facade of kindness and decency.

For the investigators, it is often initially difficult, to find out which of these human depths has something to do with the actual case, and which they must ignore in order to come closure to their goal, clearing up the crime.

Inspector Barnaby investigates with ingenuity and empathy, whereby his humour and personal understanding are often useful. Armed with these traits, he always manages to clear up the committed crime and bring the perpetrators to justice.

By the way, it is exactly these skills that Barnaby's assistant, DC Troy, is lacking. Similar to Captain Hastings, Poirot's friend, DC Troy is also mostly in the dark and wouldn’t be able to solve a case by himself, without his boss.